Sometimes, you write a song as an exercise in the craft instead of having your inspiration drop out of the sky. Truth be told, I sometimes find it a little easier to work within a set of creative constraints. I came up with Dollars to Donuts to meet the requirements of the VooDoo Doughnuts record label after the company accepted “The Dude Abides” for a 45-rpm single. At least one of the songs on the record had to make a reference to the namesake pastry, so I set out to put a clever “twist” on love gone wrong, sprinkled with high calorie metaphors. (See what I did there?)

By the time all the fine tuning was completed, the lyrics ended up with 17 donut references. Of course, right after we went into the studio (with a box of doughnuts for inspiration) and completed both songs, the label shut down. Fortunately, Terry dived into both and reimagined them for Salvation Road, so in the end, we got our just desserts.

Think we'll just call this one Delbert McClinton meets "Sticky Fingers"  |  Listen to Dollars to Donuts